In 2021, director Zack Snyder made one of the largest-scale zombie movies ever for Netflix in the form of Army of the Dead. Perhaps rivaled only by World War Z, the heist film set in a version of Las Vegas overrun by the undead was a big hit for Netflix. What happens when anything becomes a hit? It gets a sequel. As such, Netflix and Snyder announced a sequel titled Planet of the Dead, as well as an animated series. Yet, two years later, nothing has materialized. Now, the filmmaker has provided an update on both projects.
Snyder is currently promoting his new movie Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire, which hits Netflix later this month. As the title implies, there is a part two on the way next year. Naturally, that has kept the director very busy. In a recent interview with Total Film (via GamesRadar), Snyder addressed the status of the sequel, saying the following:
“My idea for Army 2 is Planet of the Dead, which is a much more – [it] scales in a crazy way, so super excited about it. Right now, obviously I’m trying to run parallel courses with these two monsters, but [I’m] really excited that people are excited to see more from the Army universe because I love it.”
The director also added that “we really did the same thing of developing this big world building concept,” explaining that they focused on building out a full universe for the franchise, much like he did with Rebel Moon. To that end, a spin-off film titled Army of Thieves also arrived in 2021. So, what about the Army of the Dead: Lost Vegs animated series? It sounds like a lot of work was already done on that project and, if all goes well, Snyder and his team will circle back to that once he’s done with Rebel Moon.
“I’m a huge fan of the Army universe. We were working on – and are trying to get back up – our Army animated series, which was really cool. We recorded the whole thing, we recorded all the voices – Christian Slater, all these cool people. Super fun.”
In short, it sounds like Snyder is busy and he’s only one man. Unless he wanted to hand the reigns off to another filmmaker, Planet of the Dead has to wait until he’s done with his massive sci-fi epic. If Netflix still wants to make it, the movie may be worth the wait. This is the man who made the surprisingly good 2004 Dawn of the Dead remake, after all.
Rebel Moon – Part One: A Child of Fire hits Netflix on December 22, with Rebel Moon: Part Two – The Scargiver due to arrive on April 19, 2024.
